April 12th, 2009

I was in a work meeting in which Mardecia, who is an African-American director-level colleague of mine, was supposed to do a short presentation. I opened the door to the room in which we were meeting, which was clearly a school classroom, and looked to see if she was coming down the hall.

She was standing just outside the door to the classroom catty corner to ours.

"Mardecia, we're in here," I said getting her attention.

"I'll be right there. I'm finishing up my presentation in here," she said turning to look at me, and to my surprise, her skin was porcelain white, she had a gap in her front teeth, and she was Madonna.

Robert and I were up at a little after eight, and had a light breakfast in anticipation of Easter lunch in Greenville. I did a load of laundry, and we headed out of Raleigh at 11:30.

We arrived at Vivian and Jeff's (my sister and husband's) at 1:00, beating my parents there. We were warmly welcomed, as always, and seeing that the dining room is just off the entrance to the kitchen, I noticed a table-setting for eight instead of six.

"Who else is coming?" I asked, expecting only my parents.

"Jeff's sister JoAnn and her husband Larry," she said.

Cool. It's good that Jeff's side of the family should enjoy the "fruits (and vegetables and meat) of their labor"—always hosting our holiday dinners!

My parents and JoAnn and Larry both pretty much arrived at the same time. My dad looked so, so good. I was so happy. And he didn't stutter one time the entire three hours or so we were there. And he was just much more engaging than he's been in years. I don't know if it's the change of all his meds, or if this stroke has given him a new perspective on life. Whatever it is, it's nice.

Here's a picture of the table. Let's see if I can recall the menu: ham, potato salad, a bean salad, cranberry sauce, collards, a peach-pineapple-Cool Whip salad, deviled eggs, and biscuits and rolls. It was all delicious.

Robert and I went for a walk around the circle on which my sister's house resides.

We had coffee and dessert, and before making our adieus, we all took a picture with Easter Bunny ears on (hover for names).

We got back to Raleigh at a little after 6:00, and Robert headed back to Durham.

Joe called at a little after 7:00 saying that he and Ben and Dale had just finished dinner and were on their way to Flex. I left within ten minutes and the four of us played about three games of free pool, followed by one game of cut-throat between Joe, Ben and me.

During that game, a guy named Ian asked if he could play the winner. Normally we just give up the table when that happens, but Ian didn't have anyone to play with, so I played two games with him. After that a guy named Tom, who came to dancing a few Wednesday ago, joined us and Joe and I played against him and Ian a couple of games.

The boys (Ben & Dale) left before Karaoke started, and Joe eventually sang At This Moment. He sang it well, but it was not the version he liked, so he didn't get to do that part at the end that he likes so much. Oh well. Next time.

I guess it was close to midnight when Joe went over to Legends and I went home. He's off tomorrow, that bitch. :-)